Updated: March 15,2016, 1:05AM,EDT
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.comCavs finding their stride?
No joke: 115-16 is not a misprint. It's crazy numbers like that, as well as this tidbit, that make Saturday's showdown in South Texas between these powerhouses so eagerly anticipated, even though they'll be going head-to-head with the NCAA tournament and despite the fact that the Warriors will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no previous regular-season game this late in the season has ever pitted two teams that can match Golden State and San Antonio's composite winning percentage of .878. The previous record was set by the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks in the historic 1971-72 season, when those juggernauts lugged a composite success rate of .832 into a matchup on Feb. 4, 1972.
Playing first on Friday night in Dallas -- and then facing the Spurs without the injured Andre Iguodala -- will certainly complicate matters for the Warriors. But you're advised to resist jumping to any conclusions. Golden State is a rousing 11-0 this season against the other five teams in the league with winning percentage of .600 or higher, 18-0 when you expand that to rest of the league's 10 most winning teams and 16-1 on the second night of back-to-backs.
All reasons why the Dubs have been No. 1 in 22 out of 22 editions of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings this season.
You can comment below on the latest 1-to-30 order assembled by the Committee of One. Many thanks to our pals from within the NBA wing of ESPN Stats & Information, as well as Elias, for the priceless data assistance they provide week after week to help us make all of our calculations.
| 2015-16 Power Rankings: Week 20 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 
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Last Week: 1 | Prepare to hear about a zillion times over the next few days about how Golden State hasn't won a regular-season game in San Antonio in 32 tries dating to Valentine's Day 1997, four months before the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan. ESPN's Basketball Power Index says the Warriors -- who won't have Andre Iguodala -- only have a 34 percent chance of winning Saturday night's showdown | |
| 2 | 
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Last Week: 2 | The Spurs, with wins over the Bulls and Thunder, are 2-0 on the longest homestand in team history in which every opponent (of the five) will sport a winning record when they arrive at the AT&T Center. Next up it's the Clippers, Blazers and Warriors visiting San Antonio, which needed that strong close against OKC more than you think after losing eight of the teams' previous 12 encounters. | |
| 3 | 
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Last Week: 3 | A week that began with a debacle -- Cleveland losing at home to a Memphis squad missing all of its recognizable firepower -- ended with the Cavs inflicting the Clippers' second-worst home loss in Chris Paul's six seasons in L.A. Since Tyronn Lue took over for David Blatt as head coach Jan. 23, LeBron & Co. rank second in the league in offensive efficiency in that span behind only Golden State. | |
| 4 | 
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Last Week: 4 | The playoffs are still everything in Toronto after consecutive first-round exits, but getting to 50 wins for the first time in franchise history will be a big deal, too. And I'd say we're safe in assuming that the Raps are good for the six more wins they need, with eight more home games to go for the team on a 16-2 roll at Air Canada Centre in 2016 and DeMarre Carroll nearing a return to the lineup. | |
| 5 | 
| 1 Last Week: 6 | Getting routed at home Sunday afternoon by LeBron James' Cavs, after showing up for work with a rather sparkly 6-1 record in day games, has presumably hushed a lot of that Better Without Blake talk in Clipperland. And if it didn't, then this should: Cleveland's 24-point runaway dropped the Clips to 2-10 this season against the other five teams currently residing in the NBA's .600 Club. | |
| 6 | 
| 3 Last Week: 9 | The Hawks do everything quietly, but the fanfare has been especially modest when it comes to their rise to No. 2 in defensive efficiency, meaning Atlanta trails only mighty San Antonio and ranks as one of just two teams league-wide holding the opposition to less than 100 points per 100 possessions. P.S. -- Kyle Korver should be back in the 40s with his 3-point percentage by the time we reconvene next Monday. | |
| 7 | 
| 4 Last Week: 11 | The Hornets are always going to struggle for the spotlight in their home state this time of year, but you can't do much more than they're doing this March with a 7-0 record so far -- good for the longest winning streak this franchise has seen since March 2010. Coming next week, though, is a brutal finishing kick: Charlotte has to play 9 of its final 12 games of the season on the road. | |
| 8 | 
| 3 Last Week: 5 | The Thunder have led entering the fourth quarter in eight consecutive games, yet we're guessing you're fairly aware by now that they've only won three of them. Defense continues to be the biggest culprit, but there's no dodging the fact that Russell Westbrook's late-game struggles are an issue, too. Russ, for example, is 0-for-11 on 3s in the fourth quarter and OT in those eight games. | |
| 9 | 
| 2 Last Week: 7 | Larry Bird, Reggie Lewis, Robert Parish, Kevin Gamble and Brian Shaw. That was the Celtics' last starting lineup back in January 1991, until last Wednesday night, to know how it feels to win a 14th straight home game. But that streak was gone two nights later and Jae Crowder is suddenly poised to miss at least two weeks, which only figures to make the race for the East's No. 3 seed tighter. | |
| 10 | 
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Last Week: 10 | No team in NBA history has ever completed an 82-game season without losing twice to at least one opponent. The Blazers have one more shot to prevent Golden State from clinching that slice of history when Damian Lillard gets another homecoming game in Oakland on April 3; Dallas, San Antonio, Minnesota and Memphis are the other teams that can still beat the Warriors twice in 2015-16. | |
| 11 | 
| 3 Last Week: 8 | Amid the ongoing Chris Bosh uncertainty and the daily tightrope walk that is managing Dwyane Wade's health, Miami has to find a measure of comfort in the good stuff coming from Goran Dragic since the All-Star break. All the Dragic/Wade fit questions persist, but The Dragon is living up to the standards of the contract he landed -- 18.5 PPG, 7.4 APG and 5.2 RPG -- when it's fully his show. | |
| 12 | 
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Last Week: 12 | The Pacers endured their worst loss of the season in Sunday's 29-point drubbing in Atlanta, which naturally dulls some of the shine from what had otherwise been a fine week, thanks to a home win over San Antonio and success in Dallas in Monta Ellis' return to Big D. Now to see what sort of impact Ty Lawson can make in Indy's final 16 games, 11 of which are helpfully at home. | |
| 13 | 
| 1 Last Week: 14 | On Feb. 22, Detroit was 27-29 and 2 1/2 games behind the Bulls for the East's final playoff spot. In the 10 (or so) games since, only four teams have fared better than the Pistons' 7-3 mark: Golden State (10-1), San Antonio (9-1), Toronto (8-2) and Charlotte (8-2). The Pistons have slowed the pace down slightly of late and have played top-four D in terms of defensive efficiency in that stretch. | |
| 14 | 
| 1 Last Week: 15 | Leave it to the Committee's NBA.com counterpart John Schuhmann to dig up a gem like this one: Houston has somehow managed to take a lead into the second quarter zero times in its past 16 -- SIXTEEN! -- games. Yet the state of the most disappointing Western Conference in memory gives James Harden and his Rockets hope of finishing as high as No. 6 despite ongoing woes on D. | |
| 15 | 
| 2 Last Week: 13 | There are only six teams in the league this season with a winning percentage in the .600s, but the injury-ravaged Grizzlies are so close. Props to Dave Joerger for weathering some early storms, countless man-games lost and the latest ownership drama to steer Memphis into a cushion that, no matter what happens from here without Mike Conley, should keep them in a playoff position. | |
| 16 | 
| 2 Last Week: 18 | Feather in the cap: Utah's March 30 home date with Golden State is considered one of the four toughest games remaining on the Warriors' schedule in the chase for 73 wins. The Jazz, though, must first go back on the road for five of the next six games after playing host to Cleveland on Monday night and sport a far worse away record (11-22) than any of the West teams above them. | |
| 17 | 
| 3 Last Week: 20 | Jabari Parker is averaging 21.2 PPG since the All-Star break in support of Giannis Antetokounmpo and his gyrostep. Make that four triple-doubles registered by the Bucks' prized import in his past 11 games -- after zero triple-doubles in the first 212 games of Antetokounmpo's career. Might Giannis have a shot at Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors after the Bucks' 3-0 week? | |
| 18 | 
| 3 Last Week: 21 | Who had Denver making a more credible run at the playoffs than Sacramento, New Orleans and Phoenix? Correct answer: No one. Props to first-year coach Mike Malone for coaxing some promising PER readings from a number of Nuggets (Nikola Jokic, Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari, Will Barton and newcomer D.J Augustin). Emmanuel Mudiay, meanwhile, just did this. | |
| 19 | 
| 2 Last Week: 17 | The Mavs' two meetings with Golden State in the next 11 days would be easier sold as a first-round playoff preview if the West's current No. 8 seed had more than three wins against .500-or-better foes over the past two months. Or if Dallas didn't share the league's longest active losing streak -- wasting a vintage spell from Dirk Nowitzki in the process -- in the face of a brutal upcoming schedule. | |
| 20 | 
| 4 Last Week: 16 | The Bulls received what now looks like an overly charitable three-spot bump from the Committee last Monday in honor of Jimmy Butler's triumphant return to the lineup. But Butler promptly sat out the next three games, reminding us that he's far from all the way back and forcing us to focus on the fact that the Bulls -- whether or not Butler returns this week -- are 10-20 in their past 30 games. | |
| 21 | 
| 2 Last Week: 19 | The Wiz enter a huge home date Monday night with Detroit sporting a 2-0 lead in the season series, meaning this is a chance to clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker with the No. 8 Pistons. But will they realistically ever need it? These same Wiz are also in the throes of a five-game losing streak, down to 10-14 without Bradley Beal and rank in the bottom third in a slew of defensive categories. | |
| 22 | 
| 3 Last Week: 25 | Any hope of us focusing on the Jose Calderon game-winner late Sunday that spared Phil Jackson's Knicks from embarrassment at Staples Center against his old pal Kobe Bryant was wiped out as soon as No. 24 uncorked this pro-Phil gem of a quote that will surely ranks as one of the nicest gifts that the Zen Master can count on as he commemorates anniversary No. 2 as Knicks president this week. | |
| 23 | 
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Last Week: 23 | The Magic are just 9-24 in 2016 after a painful four-game swing out West that included the injury absence of Nikola Vucevic, last Tuesday's loss in Los Angeles to the lowly Lakers and a 121-84 pounding Saturday night in Portland despite scoring 11 of the game's first 13 points. Since its trade deadline moves to bring in Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings, Orlando is just 4-8. | |
| 24 | 
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Last Week: 24 | Some birthday week for The Brow. Even by the standards of the Pelicans' what-else-could-go-wrong season, and even as hot as Charlotte has been lately, you struggle to fathom how they could lose a game when Anthony Davis rumbles for 40 points and Jrue Holiday chips in 38. The Pels are the first team since Denver in 1983-84 to lose a non-OT game in which two of its players scored 38+ points. | |
| 25 | 
| 3 Last Week: 22 | The dream of a playoff berth to send the Kings into their new building with some real momentum is dead. A 10th straight season without a postseason berth will be clinched in a matter of days. It's going to be a L-O-N-G final 17 games, given the fresh tensions surrounding DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl and with Sacramento also poised to forfeit its first-round pick unless it's in the top 10. | |
| 26 | 
| 2 Last Week: 28 | If you're a weary Wolves fan, beaten down by soon-to-be 12 successive seasons out of the playoffs and struggling to wade through the complexities of the holdup in Glen Taylor's planned sale of 30 percent of the team, we're here to help. Click these videos -- featuring an array of Zach LaVine throwdowns and Ricky Rubio's game-winning 3 from the wing in Oklahoma City -- to lift your spirits. | |
| 27 | 
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Last Week: 27 | Last Thursday's much-hyped farewell showdown pitting Kobe Bryant against LeBron James marked just the eighth time in 22 meetings lifetime that Kobe (26) outscored Bron (24). At least the Lakers have won at least two games in a row three times in this nightmarish third successive season out of the playoffs; read the Philly comment below to see why that matters on this Rankings Monday. | |
| 28 | 
| 1 Last Week: 29 | If you tuned in Saturday night, when the Suns put in almighty scare into the team that sits atop this ladder, you presumably came away thinking (like us) that they can actually be pretty watchable with Devin Booker and Alex Len cooking and Brandon Knight looking so flammable after a 21-game absence. Curious to hear from desert dwellers, meanwhile, how Robert Sarver's open letter went over. | |
| 29 | 
| 3 Last Week: 26 | Remember when we were talking about how the Nets "borderline flourished" on the Western Conference portion of the league's longest road trip? Forget we even mentioned it after Brooklyn wasted 35 points and seven blocks from Brook Lopez in Toronto -- as well as a 16-point lead there -- then became the first team to lose to the Sixers since these same Nets lost to them on Feb. 6. | |
| 30 | 
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Last Week: 30 | Only five teams have ever failed to win two games in a row at least once in a season -- and one of those was Charlotte in a lockout-shortened season. But the Sixers only have 16 games left to manufacture one winning streak and avoid joining the 2013-14 Milwaukee Bucks, 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks, 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers, 1947-48 Providence Steamrollers and 2011-12 Bobcats on that list. | |
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